The Lusitania

The sinking of a ship (among other things) starts a war for the US. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A beginning to a war. We'll discuss as we took
a bite out of history with Ingles Markets. On May seventh,
nineteen fifteen, the ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed by German
subs off the coast of Ireland. One thousand, one hundred
and ninety eight people drowned, including one hundred and twenty
eight Americans. The Lusitania was a British owned ship sailing
from New York to Liverpool. World War One had broken
out in nineteen fourteen. German U boats were openly patrolling

(00:21):
the waters, and a letter from the German embassy was
even published in US newspapers warning that travel through the
war zone was at their own risk. That letter was
accompanied by an ad ashore in the scheduled sailing of
the Lusitania. The US pledged neutrality and many Americans supported that. However,
after the Lusitania and many other US and British ships
were damaged or sank off the coast of Ireland, the
US government and the people became more frustrated with Germany.

(00:42):
In February of nineteen seventeen, the United States broke diplomatic
relations with Germany and Congress passed the bill with two
hundred and fifty million dollars for increased arms. On April sixth,
nineteen seventeen, the United States entered World War One. The
US suffered over fifty three thousand battle deaths over the
course of the war. This has been a bite out
of history within d tho's markets.